


Take Root

by starlight_and_seafire



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Family, Force Tree, Introspection, POV Rey (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-21 16:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18706165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_and_seafire/pseuds/starlight_and_seafire
Summary: She thinks this must have been her path. This must have been her destiny. Everything has led her here. Finally, she knows there is solid ground beneath her feet, nothing so changeable as sand that shifts at the slightest movement or gets whipped up into a frenzy as a storm circles overhead and threatens her into submission, but like she has roots that go as deep as the Force Tree itself, tying her – not unwillingly – both to people and a place.





	Take Root

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr, Damerey Connection posted an amazing list of Force related writing prompts for their May the Fourth celebration.
> 
> I’ve done a wedding under the Force Tree in “The Path Before Us” and a story along the lines of Force visions/the Force ships it in “What the Eyes Can’t See (Yet)” back in October for Damerey Week.
> 
> But since it’s pretty clear that I’m obsessed with the Force Tree, I couldn’t resist revisiting it for this story to show the first time she sees it (and several times thereafter) . . . and maybe with a touch of the Force shipping it and Leia recognizing their feelings first.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

In the aftermath of Crait, they flee and run and bounce around from one planet to another, searching for safety, for security, for a place to regroup and rebuild.

She figures it was Leia’s idea but doesn’t know for sure. She assumes there were discussions, but she never saw the debate or the hushed communiques to the people on the ground or the ultimate decision, too distracted by the lessons she had learned – was still learning – about the Force and her place in it.

Instead, she only saw the way Poe, the normally gregarious, kind, _warm_ man, had suddenly become a shade more somber at the news, as if something weighed a little heavier on his shoulders now.

When Leia gave her the coordinates, she punched them into the Falcon’s computer and set course for Yavin IV.

\--

A short time later, she’s piloting the Falcon down to the warm, almost overwhelmingly green planet. It’s an easy landing, made even easier with Chewie’s sure and steady hands assisting in the co-pilot seat. She’s grateful for the Wookie’s presence, as a part of her is distracted by the man standing behind them both. She can’t help but watch the way Poe gazes out the viewport absolutely enraptured by his surroundings, the heaviness escaping as he heaves out a deep breath, only for it to be replaced with something warm and light and almost unnamable to her.

He’s the first one off the ship, running straight into the arms of a middle-aged man with silvering hair at his temples. The man might be older, but he’s still clearly strong and hardy. His body evidences years of hard work and toil, but the good kind, one borne of hearty meals and good honest labor.

The man might be older, but he is clearly Poe’s father, with the same warm smile and kind eyes and solidness to him as his son. She only heard Poe talk about him once, in a whispered conversation late one night when her and Finn and Poe were sitting hidden in some little alcove on the Falcon. Now, she watches Poe with the older man, and while the physical resemblance is there, there’s more. Hidden just beneath the surface there are ties between them that speaks of _family_.

She wants to stand there and examine those threads, turn them over and over in her mind until she thinks she might finally understand it, to finally figure out those connections that mean family.

But there’s not time for that. Not yet. The rest of the Resistance’s forces, people and beings cobbled together from across the galaxy, land in the same clearing that the Falcon now sits in. She pays little mind to them, instead following Leia and the handful of others who were on the ship with them down the ramp until she finally feels the solid ground of Yavin IV beneath her feet.

She nudges the dirt with a single booted foot. She takes a deep breath in and fully opens herself up to the Force around her.

It feels like the start of something.

She thinks that maybe it feels like an ending, too.

\--

Rey can’t get enough of all the green.

Whenever she can, she spends her time outside, her eyes drinking in her surroundings, wondering if it will ever be _enough_. She meditates while sitting amongst the dense foliage, letting the Force flow in and through her, feeling it set her senses alive and letting it calm her down. She trains in the open fields, scampers up the trees, runs along the mountain terrain. Sometimes Finn will join her outside to train, or Rose will when she’s working on the ships, or Poe when she’s meditating and exploring. Sometimes it’s a combination of all three or even others, and every time she welcomes them, welcomes them to join her amongst all the green. She’s learning how _to be_ amongst these people even as she learns the ways of the Force and how it moves through all this life that surrounds her.

The surroundings speak to her as nothing else ever has. But still, there is something else that calls to her.

And now, it’s time.

They’ve been there two weeks before she takes Poe up on his offer to show her the tree. Leia had mentioned it once, briefly, while they were travelling amongst the stars, but Poe’s the one who had explained it to her, had told her all about it until it had turned from some powerful, galaxy-wide metaphor into something more personal.

He guides her down the winding paths leading away from the Dameron compound until they reach a clearing, the darker light of the forest giving way to something more, something almost uncanny. The bright sunshine illuminates a tree that seems to give off its own glow, something blue and green and almost otherworldly.

She can’t help but just stare at it for a long moment. Finally, she turns to face Poe, who’s staring at the tree almost wistfully, but there’s something else there too, something she can’t quite figure out, written on his face. But there’s peace and contentment and wonder twining through his Force signature and she knows he’s as moved by its presence here as she is.

She can’t help but wonder what’s going through his mind at this moment.

He looks at her and something passes behind his eyes, something warm and calm and certain, and with a nod, he leaves her to commune with the tree alone.

\--

The first time it’s mostly just feeling, fleeting bursts of emotions that flow in and through her until they dissipate once more.  

She’s not certain of anything really. She can’t quite name any feeling in particular, but there’s something there, something she’s never quite felt before with any certainty, something she’s maybe only ever felt in bits and pieces along the periphery.

She opens her eyes and breathes out deeply. She stands and shakes her legs out, the limbs heavy after they’ve sat curled underneath her these last few hours, and returns to the ranch.

It’s on the walk back where, for the first time in weeks, her legs finally feel sure and steady again. Ever since they had first set down on the planet, she has felt oddly coltish, her feet uncertain beneath her as they carried her along the solid, steady ground. She’s used to the sand, has felt slushy, soft snow beneath her feet, and rough, cragged rocks as she climbed and ran and trained.

She walks, with her back held a little straighter, her gait a little more graceful, as she’s now a little more certain of what lies beneath.

She’s back the next week. And again the next, and whenever breaks from missions and training give her time to just breathe and tap into the lifeforce that flows so deeply in and amongst that tree.

It’s a safe haven for her amongst all the trials the galaxy throws her way.

It’s a safe haven for her while she tries to figure out her changing, deepening feelings for the man who brought her to it in the first place, a man who often finds comfort and solace in its presence as well.

\--

They take the Falcon off world on a short mission. It’s nothing more than a quick exchange of information for some credits, and anyone could do it, really. But General Organa had asked Rey, and Rey readily agreed. Rumors about the young Jedi had awakened throughout the galaxy, and in its path, so had hope.

A brief glimpse of her face did more to spur support for the Resistance than anything else had in a long time.

Poe had quickly volunteered, and General Organa had readily agreed to that too, a grin twitching at the corners of her lips as she returned to her command console.

The mission itself goes quickly, but somewhere on the path through the mountainous forest back to their ship, where they traipse along uneven ground, she stumbles over a rock before she manages to catch herself by grabbing a tree branch.

She flushes a little at her unusual bout of ungracefulness. Moments later, she’s grateful for that flush, because she’s certain that if it wasn’t already there, she would have exposed something much more powerful when Poe reaches over and ever so gently plucks a twig out of her hair.

They’re both quiet as they finally board their ship, BB-8’s endless stream of cheerful chatter the only thing breaking the silence that has descended over them.

On their return to Yavin IV, Poe helms the controls, and he flies low and slow along distant reaches of the planet that she hasn’t yet seen.

The sun reflects off the jungle canopy and illuminates the cockpit in a vibrant, earthy green. She fills her hungry eyes with all that she can see, taking in all that she never had. At the same time, she can’t help but watch him as he takes in his surroundings, watches as everything else falls away, all the pain and suffering caused by a galaxy at war, till there’s nothing left but warmth and light and peace.

He turns and grins at her and all she feels is warmth and light and peace.

\--

Yavin IV isn’t all warmth and light. In the command rooms on base or in whispered conversations around the ranch, she can hear it – she can _feel_ it – the darkness that lingers just beneath the surface, some trace of the Sith left behind eons ago.

But the light had – like always – rose to meet it, and the spirit of the Rebellion lingered, chasing off the worst of the darkness. But a hint of the battle between the two forces remained, something chaotic and intangible, lingering just beyond Rey’s senses.

The war – both within the Great Temple itself and in the galaxy as a whole - gets to be too much sometimes, but she’s learned that sometimes retreat can be the right path to take. She’ll wander off to clear her head, and sometimes, somewhere along the way, she’ll run into a man who seeks serenity too, and together they’ll find their way to the tree, and with their backs resting against the rough bark and shoulders pressing together, they turn their faces up toward the sky.

She had always looked to the sky, both for the thrill of cutting through the air in flight and to find peace and freedom from the pain of her soul-deep loneliness. Now there’s someone beside her, and she’s never felt so free even while she’s still on the ground.

\--

They’re in the fifth week of a mission that seems to have no end in sight. They’re in the air almost as much as they are on the ground, and for someone who spent much of her life on a relatively small area of a single planet, her mind is practically spinning as she tries to take all of it in.

But for all the adventure, she misses Yavin IV. She misses the dense green jungle and the sounds of woolamanders high up in the trees. She misses the smell of Kes Dameron’s home cooking and the way the breeze wafts in through the open windows of the house. She misses the way Rose laughs as they share a moment while elbow deep in a ship’s engines and the way Finn hollers as he swings from a vine into the warm waters of the nearby lake and the conversations with Poe as they wander through the forest, talking of everything and nothing, of the Rebellion and the Resistance and the life in between.

On Jakku, she never could let herself imagine or wish or hope for anything. Hope was a dangerous thing, and on Jakku, she knew better than to hope.

In the dark, hidden corridors of the Falcon, with her shoulder pressed to Poe’s and their backs resting against the wall, she lets herself imagine that they’re back on Yavin IV, their backs resting against the Force Tree.

She knows they’ll be back soon enough.

\--

On a random Benduday, the war comes to an end.

Armitage Hux sits in a prison cell, pale and tired but otherwise safe. He’s become a traitor to the First Order, a man who willingly turned himself – and several datachips worth of information on the First Order - over to the Resistance. Now, alone and imprisoned but alive, he waits to stand trial as the galaxy begins to reform itself once more.

Kylo Ren and his Knights turn to dust on the very ground that had once laid waste to Anakin Skywalker and borne Darth Vader.

There are skirmishes still to be fought and loose ends to tie up, not to mention an entire government to rebuild and hopefully to make stronger, to ensure that yet another generation would not be lost to war.

She knows Poe will be right there leading that charge, stepping into the role Leia had left behind for him when it was her time to join the Force. Finn, too, now that he’s become a voice for the millions of lost children who had been forced into fighting a war on the whims of madmen.

She knows her battle will now come in reforming an ancient order . . . but not exactly, no. She’s learned the lessons of the Jedi, both good and ill, and she wants to make it better, wants to make it something _more_. Just a few years ago, she never could have imagined herself where she is today. She never could have imagined a galaxy – much less herself – at peace.

No, she had always imagined that she would find herself somewhere amongst the stars, flying free in the vast expanses of space. Now, she thinks, peace can be found closer to home, the very idea of it more tangible and solid. She can’t help but think of the Force Tree, its roots planted firmly in the ground even as it reaches up toward the sky.  

Without any conscious thought on her part, her feet lead her to the Force Tree, and she settles in once more at its base. She rests her back on the rough bark and closes her eyes, tilting her head back as she lets the sun warm her face.

She’s not sure how long she’s there, maybe a few minutes or maybe more, when she feels a familiar presence arrive, his shoulder gently bumping into hers as he settles into place. His Force signature mingles with the tree’s, the familiar warm golden hues twining impossibly together until they’re practically indistinguishable. They sit in quiet, companionable silence, enjoying the newfound feeling of peace, and she lets her mind wander everywhere and nowhere at once, just letting everything wash over her.

Yavin IV is so different from Jakku. It’s everything she never had. Not just a steady source of food and water and shelter, but friends and comrades and _family_.

She thinks this must have been her path. This must have been her _destiny_. Everything has led her here. Finally, she knows there is solid ground beneath her feet, nothing so changeable as sand that shifts at the slightest movement or gets whipped up into a frenzy as a storm circles overhead and threatens her into submission, but like she has roots that go as deep as the Force Tree itself, tying her – not unwillingly – both to people and a place. Everything is real and solid in a way that she’s never known before. For once, she feels like she belongs.

It’s growing late and Poe stands, stretching his arms up to the sky as he takes a deep breath in, before turning to face her. The light of the descending sun illuminates him from behind, casting a warm golden glow about him.

He holds out a hand to her and says, “Let’s go home,” and it feels like forever.

Together, they’ll build a home, a family, a life that she never could have dreamed for herself. She’ll regrow what was once the Jedi into something better, and maybe she can even learn to be a farmer and tend to all that new green life she loves so much. It doesn’t matter really, not when she’s learned what _home_ and _family_ and _love_ meant at the foot of this magnificent tree, not when Finn and Rose and Poe will be there right beside her, with solid ground beneath her feet and all the sky above her.

She smiles up at him as she presses a hand into the bark of the Force Tree, feels the same peace and contentment she’s always felt in its presence but this time there is no disconnect, no disruption, as she leans away from the tree to take his hand. She stands and together they walk into the light of the late afternoon sun for home.


End file.
